


figure of my dreams

by extasiswings



Category: Timeless (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universes, Angst, F/M, Second Chances, Timeless Fanfic Prompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 22:18:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11114028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/extasiswings/pseuds/extasiswings
Summary: For the prompt: A character gains something they desire, but knows they will lose it again. This could be an object, a person, or something abstract.“I’m sorry,” Flynn says again, much more quietly than before. “I didn’t mean—I had to be sure.”“Be sure of what? Garcia, will you just tell me what’s going on?” It’s been so long since he’s heard that particular frustrated edge in Lorena's voice, but he’s not surprised that it’s surfacing now. He’s been rather obtuse this whole time and it can’t be easy for her.He’s sorry about that, too. The last thing he wants is to make things difficult.“He’s not Garcia Flynn,” Lucy says from the doorway, crossing her arms over her chest. “Are you?”





	figure of my dreams

It starts off as a normal day.

It doesn’t end that way.

“No! Garcia—”

It ends with a gun in his back and Lucy’s tear-stained face. It ends with sparks in the air as something opens in front of him as if a zipper is being pulled down bit by bit. It ends with a fight as he twists in the grip of the Rittenhouse man and slams an elbow into his solar plexus to escape.

It’s too late.

One of the errant sparks catches Flynn’s hand and heat bursts under his skin. It’s followed by pain—pain like he’s never known, as if he’s being ripped apart molecule by molecule. He’s vaguely aware of Lucy shouting in the background, of a door clanging open and gunshots ringing out, but he’s frozen in place, completely paralyzed as the glow from the void engulfs his hand, his arm, and then the rest of him.

And then everything goes black.

* * *

Flynn wakes to blindingly white walls and the steady beeping of monitors. His head is pounding, his whole body aching as if it’s one giant bruise. 

But...he’s alive. He hadn’t been so sure of that for a moment. 

He shifts in the small bed, groaning when even that small movement sends a dull wave of pain through him. From the side of the bed, a hand curls around his and squeezes gently.

“Garcia? Sweetheart?”

Flynn’s vision blurs as he turns his head too quickly towards the voice, but when it clears he freezes again. 

“Oh thank god,” Lorena sighs, bringing his hand to her lips. “I was so worried.” 

The monitor beeps faster and her brow furrows as she glances over at it. 

“Sweetheart?”

“What—” Flynn’s tongue feels too heavy, his mouth fuzzy and dry. This isn’t possible. It’s not—how did he— “What happened?” 

Lorena smooths her free hand over his forehead, brushing his hair back. It’s a familiar gesture, one that he recalls her doing hundreds of times before. But that was all when they were married. When she was alive. As it is, it takes everything in him not to flinch away from the touch.

“You were standing in Connor’s office and there was a flash,” she explains. “And then you just collapsed. You wouldn’t wake up.”

What happened to you, he thinks. Why are you here? How are you here?

And then the first part of her statement catches up with him. 

“Connor? Connor Mason?”

“Yes?” Lorena brushes her hand over his forehead again as if checking for injury or casually taking his temperature. “You work with him...Garcia, is everything okay? Did you hit your head?”

“I—” _No. No, this isn’t right. None of this is right._

(He’s wanted to see her again for so long, but not like this, not when he’s confused and confined and not entirely sure that any of this is real, not when elation and fear are warring inside him in equal measure)

“Rittenhouse…” Flynn trails off under the concerned weight of Lorena’s gaze. 

“Lucy can handle Rittenhouse for a while,” she assures. “You don’t need to worry about that.”

_Lucy…_

They’d woken up together just that morning, her limbs tangled with his. She’d laughed when he’d made a comment about her sex hair and then she kissed him and pulled him on top of her. 

Now, that memory is slipping away like a dream he can’t quite keep ahold of. It scares him. 

(It’s the cruelest joke of the universe that he should be here in this room, with his wife, his very much alive _wife_ , when he’s finally moved on, finally let go of the guilt and despair that held him back from Lucy for so long)

He clears his throat and swipes his free hand over his face. His eyes burn.

_It’s not real. None of this is real. It can’t be._

That light...maybe it really had killed him, maybe he’s still unconscious and this is a dream. Or maybe…Anthony had told him something once, something about how all of them needed to be more careful with time because you never know what might happen.

And then there’s Jiya, with all her skills, who still passes out sometimes and wakes up asking questions about things that have never happened.Jiya, who swears up and down that alternate realities are real.

_I can’t stay._

And yet, he doesn’t want to leave having done nothing either.

Pushing down the pain, Flynn sits up and reaches out for Lorena. She hasn’t lost the concern in her eyes, but she doesn’t protest against being pulled in, doesn’t say a word when he kisses her soft and slow. 

Inside of him, something cracks and heals over again in the same instance, like a bone being re-broken in order to set properly. It hurts, but it also feels like freedom. 

“Garcia?” Lorena pulls back, her thumb brushing away the tear tracks on his cheek. “What is it? Why are you crying?”

“I love you,” Flynn replies. “I’ll always love you, Lorena. You know that, right?”

“Of course I do,” she acknowledges. “Of course—darling, you’re scaring me. Tell me what’s wrong.”

“I’m sorry,” he says, his tongue nearly tripping over the words. “I’m so sorry. For everything.”

_I’m sorry I couldn’t save you. I’m sorry I couldn’t save our daughter. I’m sorry—_

_Iris._

“Where’s Iris?” Flynn asks, glancing around. Lorena’s mouth snaps shut, confusion flooding her face.

“Iris? Who’s Iris?” 

His stomach drops. Of course. If one thing is different in this world, it makes sense that other things would be as well, but the thought that Iris may not have ever existed, that his daughter, _their_ daughter, isn’t real? Well, if he had any doubts about this being the wrong universe, that wiped them out. 

Still, he can’t help making sure.

“We never had a daughter. Did we?”

Lorena drops his hand as if it’s a hot iron, covering her mouth as she looks away. It’s clear that he’s struck a nerve, although what he isn’t sure. This universe’s Garcia Flynn would have known better.

“Of course we didn’t,” she replies finally, her voice thick with emotion. “You know that I can’t—no. No, we never had a daughter.”

“I’m sorry,” Flynn says again, much more quietly than before. “I didn’t mean—I had to be sure.”

“Be sure of what? Garcia, will you just tell me what’s going on?” It’s been so long since he’s heard that particular frustrated edge in her voice, but he’s not surprised that it’s surfacing now. He’s been rather obtuse this whole time and it can’t be easy for her.

He’s sorry about that, too. The last thing he wants is to make things difficult for her.

“He’s not Garcia Flynn,” Lucy says from the doorway, crossing her arms over her chest. “Are you?”

This Lucy is more severe than the Lucy he’s used to, hair cut short to her chin and an air about her that says soldier more than professor. Flynn’s pulse picks up anyway.

“No,” he admits. “Not the Garcia Flynn that belongs here anyway.”

Lorena sits back in the chair by the bed looking somewhat ill.

“Then where is my husband?” She asks.

“Rufus thinks Garcia’s in his world,” Lucy replies. “That’s what that light was earlier. The two of them switching places.”

“Can you fix it?” It’s all Flynn wants to know.

“Rufus can fix anything.”

As it turns out, that’s true. But it’s his Rufus, not the Rufus from this universe, who figures it out first. 

Lucy wraps her arms around him as soon as he reappears and it feels right, like exactly what’s meant to be. Before the portal closes, he sees Lorena do the same to his counterpart, love shining in her eyes. 

“I love you,” Lucy murmurs, and Flynn pulls his eyes away from the scene of what could have been.

“I love you, too.”

She smiles.


End file.
